Trapped
by dutchtulips
Summary: Mary Jane feels unloved and alienated by everyone; trapped with only one way out. But Spider-man is determined to save her from herself, and there's only one way from him to do that. . .


SD ~ Stan Lee, Marvel, Columbia; same as always. if _I_ actually owned it, you can _guarantee_ some things would be different. . . . 

AN ~ okay, for this fic, let's just pretend for the moment that Mary Jane's "suspiciousness" at the end didn't happen, you know, so the things that happen in this story come as a bigger surprise to MJ. (oh, never mind, you'll find out. . .) enjoy ;-) 

****

**Trapped**

****

****-dutchtulips- 

_"The way you make me feel, I could collapse,_

_An epidemic I cannot outlast._

_How could you feel used, when I feel trapped?_

_. . .Now some flowers, they never bloom,_

_And some flowers just bloom dead."_

__

__

__-- The Wallflowers, "Some Flowers Bloom Dead" 

_Late is good, _she thought. In a busy city like New York, surely someone was bound to see her if she did it during daytime. Even though New York was bustling twenty-four hours a day, Mary Jane knew that practically no one would see anyways. Exactly what she wanted. 

Mary Jane glanced over her shoulder, at the cat clock on the living room wall. Nearly 2.00 AM. Nodding to herself, she stepped out on the balcony, closing the French door behind her, and stepped out to the balustrade, gripping it with tense hands. 

_Spider-man saved my life, but what does it matter if no cares about me? _She thought bitterly. _I rarely hear from my parents anymore, Harry and I are history, and Peter. . .he doesn't love me, he doesn't want anything to do with me. . ._

__

__Sobs filled up Mary Jane's chest, rising up through her throat, where they burst all over her face. All down her cheeks became soaked with tears, and her breath went ragged from the sobs. Her hands flew to her face,as if to somehow suppress her outburst. 

It took a while for Mary Jane to calm down. After the tears had dried and stopped pooling in her eyes, and when her breathing was normal again, she resumed her earlier position, clutching the Monticello balustrade tightly with both hands and staring at the indigo sky. 

The same thing kept pounding in her brain over and over. _I'm all alone. I'm alienated_. _I have nothing left to lose. _Mary Jane squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, as if in pain, and opened them, a different look on her face. Slowly she slipped her leg over the balustrade and put her foot on the cement ledge. Still stradling the rail, Mary Jane was just about to put her other leg over the other side when she heard a voice yell out to her. 

"Mary Jane! No!" 

She darted her head all around, her red locks hitting her face, trying to locate the owner of the voice. When she did, her breath caught in her throat. 

Perched atop the adjacent building, looking down at her, was none other than Spider-man himself. Mary Jane found herself staring at him; he seemed so majestic standing there. But then she remembered quite suddenly and vigorously shook her head. 

"Spider-man, what are you doing here?" She shouted. "How did you know?" 

"I could sense it!" He called back. And then, in a strained voice, "Please don't do this, MJ, I'm begging you!" He stepped closer to the building's edge. 

Seeing this, Mary Jane quickly swung her other leg over the side and stood, gripping the balustrade from behind. "Don't you move! Don't you try to save me, Spider-man! I'm not worth it, all right?" 

"Yes, you are!" Spider-man yelled to her. "Why would you think that?" 

A tear started down Mary Jane's cheek again but she hastily wiped it away, calling, "Because I'm all alone, alienated like some sort of lost puppy! Nobody cares about me, nobody loves me!" 

"That's not true!" Spider-man's heart was climbing slowly into his throat, not knowing what to do. If he vaulted out for her, she'd have already jumped - and then it would be too late to leap out for her again. The best plan he had right now was just to keep her talking, and maybe he could figure out a way to keep her from killing herself. 

"Yes it is!" Mary Jane shouted. "It's Peter. . .I'm so love with him, but. . .he doesn't LOVE ME! He - he hurt me. He just walked away!" The tears had started again but she did nothing this time to stop them. "He hates me, Spider-man!" 

"He doesn't hate you, MJ!" Spider-man was sweating buckets now. "Look, MJ, trust me, okay? Just let me jump down there and we can talk, okay?" 

"No!" She yelled in a strangled half-sob. "You're going to try and save me, and I don't want saved! There's nothing left for me! And Peter hates me!" 

His shoulders dropped. "He doesn't, Mary Jane. He doesn't! Peter Parker cares about you more than you know!" 

"Then why _wouldn't_ he let me know? Come on, Spider-man! If Peter loves me how could he be so dumb to hurt me like he did and just leave me there, like I'm not worth it!" 

He moved a little, slightly surprised he was allowing himself to say the following words. "MJ, you should go find Peter and tell him the same things you just said to me! You love him, right? So don't give up! You deserve to have him in your life, so reach for the stars!" 

She seemed to be considering his words for a moment, but then shook her head again. "He doesn't want any part of me! He doesn't want me in his life! It's time wasted!" Pause. "There's nothing left for me!' She reiterated. "Now please go away! I don't want you to save me!" 

"You did the three other times," Spider-man said quietly, somehow it able to be heard by Mary Jane. "It would have scarred me forever if you had died, MJ! So please, don't kill yourself now and have me have risked everything for you in vain." 

Mary Jane's toes clutched the ledge as her white dressing gown was whipped gently by the wind, and she stared up at Spider-man, without responding, for the longest time. Finally, she said to him, in a calm tone, "If I don't have Peter, I have nothing. And if I have nothing, it's useless to go on living. If Peter doesn't love me, I don't want to be alive any longer." 

Spider-man swallowed hard, preparing himself for the words he was about to say. But if they would save Mary Jane from a premature end, he would do it. In a quivering voice, "MJ?" 

"What is it?" 

"Peter _does_ love you." Spider-man took in a sharp intake of breath. 

Her neck snapped up, flicking her red hair from her bewildered face. "_What_?" 

"MJ. . ." He crouched at the edge of the building, holding on with fingers, and then turned to face Mary Jane. "Peter loves you. Very, very much." 

Her expression was enamored with astonishment. "Then - then why didn't he say so? Why did he walked away from me like he did?" She paused. "How do you know? Did he tell you?" 

Spider-man shrugged lightly. "I can tell. He didn't have to say anything. And he didn't. But I can tell." 

Mary Jane let out a long breath, and amazingly letting a small smile appear on her face. But as soon as it had, it dropped away. Her fingers grasped the balustrade again, and she shouted, "How do I know you're not just telling me this so I'll come down? You could just be lying because you don't want me to kill myself!" 

"I'm not!" Spider-man said, his voice strained yet again. "It's not a lie! Peter loves you, Mary Jane! Really he does! More than life, if you must know! It's just, that day in the graveyard when he said he could only be friends, he didn't -" 

Immediately he cut himself off, realizing his slip, as Mary Jane's bewildered face stared over at him once more. _Oh no. . .oh God. . ._

__

__"Spider-man?" She squeaked. "How could you possibly know that? Peter and me. . .we were alone. . ._no one _else was around." Without thinking, she took one hand from the balustrade and clutched her heart. "Oh, my God. . .Peter? Peter, is that you?" 

He felt like his heart was going to explode, it was pounding so hard. But all of his thoughts from all of the yesterdays had gone out the window now, because all that mattered was keeping Mary Jane alive. 

Slowly, with his breath rapid, Spider-man reached up and removed the scarlet mask from his head, revealing Peter Parker's brown hair and startling blue eyes. "Y-yeah." 

Tears started down her face again, but this time for a different reason. A wide smile broke out over Mary Jane's face, and she felt a happy laugh in her throat. Completely forgetting where she was, she took her other hand away from the balustrade, and - 

"_PETER!!_" She screamed as she tumbled from the cement ledge, through the rushing air and towards the New York streets below. 

He felt as if his heart had stopped; but as like the usual agility of Spider-man, Peter sprung into action. Vaulting off the building's edge like a rocket, he shot out a strand of his gossamer webbing, and it immediately attached to Mary Jane's balcony above him. He then let the next rope of spider silk go, and it easily caught her. 

Peter yanked his shoulder upwards, landing Mary Jane in his muscular arms. As he wrapped his arm around her, the gossamer on the wrist of his other arm pulled taut, and there they dangled. 

Mary Jane's fast breath started to calm once more. She wrapped her arms tight around Peter, holding him close. Laying her face against his shoulder, she said, "I'm sorry, Pete. I'm so sorry about those awful things I said." 

"No, MJ. _I'm_ the one who should apologize. Please, please forgive me. You didn't deserve for me to hurt you like that." Peter gave her a warm smile. "I didn't realize what I was about to lose until it came before my eyes. And. . .the hardest thing for me would be to stay alive in a world without you." 

She smiled back at him, then laughed as she realized they were still dangling together from the webbing. Looking back into Peter's crystalline blue eyes, she whispered, "I love you." 

"I love you," he replied. 

He leaned in close, meeting her lips with his, and then there they were, Peter and Mary Jane, sharing a deep, passionate kiss - still hanging from the strand of spider's web. 

****

**el fin**


End file.
